Don't bring big grenades into small rooms.

“Good evening, Ma’am!”

Another pair of combat armored ponies stopped momentarily to throw up a salute as Hispano and I made our way past them. Without another word, they continued trotting down the hall as we approached what I was pretty sure was the armory door. So far, it was the only door we’d seen with metal plating welded securely onto it.

Hoofing at the thick cluster of rebar they’d replaced the standard handle with, I gave the hefty metal door a stiff tug. Unfortunately, the door didn’t move, and instead I pulled myself forward hard enough to slam my face against it.

“Let me get that for you, little guy.” Hispano muttered out through half a giggle as she pulled me back and took my place. “Don’t worry, Dum Dum. One day, you’ll grow up to be that big, strong mare you’ve always wanted to be.” With a forceful tug, she pulled the door open and couldn’t help but sneak a smirk at me from under her hood. “Well, ladies first.”

“I loosened it up for you.” I shot back with what I thought was a strikingly witty tone.

It helped me to feel smug, right until I hobbled one step through the door, and felt my forehoof slide out from right under me.

Flopping down muzzle first onto the floor, I coughed and hacked as the stench of oil and grease plugged up my nose. The sharp ringing of a tool from further in the room startled me, and I scrambled to get back up, but just kept slipping. It wasn’t until Hispano’s firm and… admittedly strong grasp wrapped around my waist to help me get on my hooves again.

Looking at the floor, I found a large pool of prismatic black oil under me. Tracks from pallet jacks cut out from every edge of the puddle, drawing long fine lines across the old concrete floor. They weaved, twisted, and curved around the dozens of stacks of bullet boxes, weapon cases, and other various supplies stacked on pallets around the room.

Entire pallets of old armored barding, rusting guns, field communications gear, and anything else you could ever want were neatly stacked and organized in this large room. Some of the boxes however, looked to have been recently opened. Their contents had been pulled out and placed into boxes on adjacent pallets. Like the outfits some of the rangers passing us had been wearing, these boxes were likewise labeled with the ‘Hoof it!’ business logo.

“In there.” Hispano whispered, nudging me to look straight toward the back of the room.

Another sturdy steel plated door sat a straight shot in front of us. Next to it, was were part of the wall had been recently forcefully chiseled out. A roll of rusty chain-linked fencing had been rolled across the rough hole like a makeshift patch to cover it up. On it, metal plates had been bolted, creating a nearly whole armored sheet that extended down to a rectangular slot that sat just above the chiseled edge of the wall.

“Are you alright?” A concerned mare spoke up from through the caged slit to the inside of the next room. A pair of bright yellow eyes peered out, looking around for a moment before landing on us with a gasp. “Oh! My, I’m sorry, I had no idea you were coming in, Sentinel! Otherwise I would have had them clean that spill before they left.”

“What?” I spat out as I struggled intensely not to reach my hoof up and wipe my face off. Only one forehoof, Night! Don’t fall on the floor again!

“Hey.” Hispano prodded me with a sharp whisper. “Say something back, before she causes a problem.”

Right, I’ve gotta speak for her.

“We… she wanted to make sure that uh, proper procedure was being followed for the prisoner’s items.” I tried to use my best authoritative voice as I turned my head side-on to the mare, hoping it would be good enough to hide my eye.

“Of course, I’m nearly done cataloging everything.” The mare called back, catching my oil covered grimace and immediately deciding that the floor was more comforting to look at. “Actually… uh… I’ve had a sort of problem with the last item. I can’t clear the chamber on it, and I was wondering, perhaps you could assist me with it?”

“Sweet.” Hispano whispered to me. “She’s going to let us in on her own.”

“Sweet.” I repeated without thinking.

“What?” The mare asked as Hispano kicked at my side sharply.

“Sweet spot!” I spat out. “She said she can find it.” Fucking get a grip, Night! We’re almost out of this place.

“Right, good.” The mare nodded, “Let me get the door for you.”

As Hispano helped me to carefully make my way over the rest of the oil slick, a sharp buzzing filled the air above us. A bell sounded as an unseen mechanism swung the metal door ahead of us open. Only a split second later did the yellow eyed mare poke her muzzle out hesitantly.

The moment she had, she gasped again and looked at the floor as we approached. Her hoof shot up in a sharp salute, as we passed through the door. As soon as we were through, she reached up and flipped a switch on the wall next to her. She moved to turn around, but paused. Turning back, she gave the switch a few more flips before sighing.

I couldn’t help myself.

“Something wrong?” The words tumbled from my muzzle.

“Third time this week the door’s jammed.” The mare sighed. “Gun’s stuck, door’s stuck. It’s just not been my night.” Turning, she pointed behind her. “Whatever, I’ll log another request for the morning shift. Anyway, the weapon in question is on the workbench. Let me show you the problem, then I’ll write up that repair request.”

The room back here was much smaller than I’d expected, being little more than a long hallway crammed with a few workbenches and about a dozen long racks. The racks were filled with labeled metal boxes as well as wooden boxes filled with ammunition and explosives of all types. On the closest workbench was the instantly recognizable bulk of a cannon that was Suiza.

“Honestly, I’m quite relieved that you stopped by!” The mare gave out a nervous laugh as she trotted back over to the bench, leaving Hispano to follow behind her. “I mean, you’re pretty much the expert on all sorts of ‘mutie’ weapons, and so I figured you could see what they did to it that I couldn’t.”

Reaching up, the mare firmly grasped around the charging handle for Suiza, which was locked forward for some reason. She gave a few hard tugs that ended up shifting the whole workbench on its legs.

“There’s no reason it should be jammed that I can see. In fact, it’s in immaculate condition for being in the claws of those savages.” The mare let out a frustrated sigh and took a step back, gesturing up at the bench. “But, I’m sure the fault lies with me, and that it needs a more experienced touch.”

“Well, first, you need to firmly grasp the bolt and draw it straight back,” Hispano spoke as she reached up and gripped around the bolt handle with a talon. “She only really likes to cycle in one, smooth motion…” Lifting her other talon up to the port, she pulled and made the whole action run as smooth as silk, extracting the large twenty milimeter round right into her waiting talon in a single second. “Just like that.”

“Oh wow, you make it look so easy…!” The words died in the mare’s throat as her eyes locked on the talons in front of her. “Hey, wait a minute, you’re not…!”

That was as far as the mare made it before Hispano flipped the round in her talon and literally shoved it down the mare’s throat.

Her yellow eyes went wide as she sputtered and choked on the large autocannon round, flailing her hooves up at her muzzle to try to get it out. It left Hispano free to sneak in under her panicked eyes with a clenched talon and come up right under her chin with it.

I reflexively cringed as I could hear the mare’s teeth crack around the back of the steel casing. That, or it was a crack from her neck as Hispano’s uppercut forced the mare stiff as she collapsed to the floor. That… was one hell of a sucker-punch...

Taking a single breath, Hispano looked over at me with her now patented annoyed glare. “Do you have to try to make friends with everypony you see?”

“What? I wasn’t!” Again, she wanted me to be the one to speak! Why was this suddenly my fault!?

Hispano opened her beak to speak, but paused as we both heard the first metal door to the armory open up, and quick hoofsteps headed towards us. Quicker to act than me, she turned and started to work at the clamps holding Suiza down on the bench.

“There, that door’s open.” The whisper of a voice came in through the still stuck door behind me.

Shit, grab a weapon! Looking down at the mare on the floor, my eyes raced over her form. She wore the same ‘Hoof it!’ jumpsuit some of the other rangers did, but was completely unarmed. My eyes darted to the wooden box her head was resting on, and the set of silver objects inside of it.

As the hoofsteps got unbearably close, I reached my hoof in and grasped one of the objects in my fetlock. Spinning, I raised it up toward the shadows that grew along the floor and wall as the ponies approached. Blinking, I stared at the silver metal ring-like stem to the apple shaped explosive in my hoof. Through the ring however, I watched the approaching figures flail to a stop in front of Hispano and I.

The bewildered and frankly startled gazes of Rook and Solomon were both focused on the grenade in my hoof. Now that they were in a place with better lighting, I could see that for as bad as Hispano and I had gotten it from Velvet, they’d suffered pretty much the same as we had. Outside of his shiny, perfectly untouched brass cyberleg, there wasn’t a spot on Rook’s body that wasn’t discolored or scraped open from the beating he took. Solomon on the other hoof, seemed to have gotten off easier, though he still looked worse than I did. Well, it’s still not as bad as I’m about to make it...

Smirking, I instinctively reached up my other forehoof to pull the pin… and then remembered I didn’t have another forehoof.

“Fuck it.” Hispano grunted as she dropped the recently liberated Suiza in favor of snatching the grenade right from my hoof. With her other talon, she threaded a claw through the ring-stem and glared at the two. To at least my surprise, Solomon took a single step back.

“No.” Rook spoke up harshly, reaching back and placing his hoof on Solomon’s bruised chest. “It’s a bluff. They’ll die, and we can still run out the door.”

As if there was actually some great force of ironic justice out there, the motor in the second armory door shot out a series of sparks that rained down on them. They both shrank down as the motor went into double time and slammed the heavy steel door closed behind them. As the slam rang through my ears, a puff of smoke filtered out from the edges of the door as the motor died completely.

Solomon gave a nervous kick against the door, cringing as it didn’t budge at all. “The door’s stuck!”

“The door is stuck.” Rook sighed as what sounded like the last bit of hope drained out of him. “Of course it is, sir.”

“What do you think, Night?” Hispano cooed softly as she held the grenade out toward them stiffly. “You think it would be a fair trade?” With a smirk tugging at her bruised face, she glanced at me with her tired eyes. “Might be worth it.”

“Now now!” Solomon’s shaky voice spoke up. “Let’s think this through! Surely, we must endeavor to work together in order to get out of here?”

Something about his words hit me hard, and tore my mind right down the middle. For one, I’d never, ever wanted to hear his voice again. But the fear I could hear in it, now that sent a spark of joy through me on the level that only Buck or Hispano could have given.

“Well, we were the distraction.” Hispano snipped at him, once more causing him to recoil and stay behind Rook’s defensive stance. “You were supposed to leave with the others when the alarms go off in like, two minutes!”

“Yes, well…” Rook’s posture didn’t waver. No he was more comfortable in this situation than Solomon ever could be. However, his pause and searching glance were just as nervous as the sniveling and frightened Saddle Arabian behind him. He didn’t recover until his eyes landed on the floor next to Hispano. “Like with you, Master Solomon’s equipment is quite valuable, and he refuses to simply leave it behind.”

Rook’s eyes shifted again, bouncing up to the grenade in Hispano’s hoof, and then straight over to my glare. He tried to focus himself, hardening his gaze into the same sort of cold look he’d given me when I’d ‘stolen’ Solomon’s motorcar outside of Mare’s Lake. However, this time, he couldn’t fool me. Despite however superior he and Solomon saw themselves as compared to us, he knew we beat them again at this game we just kept finding ourselves playing.

Because to them, it was always about winning.

“No.” I spat out as a smile split my own muzzle. “I think the real reason is that we weren’t supposed to be in here yet.”

“No… you don’t think that they…?” Hispano glanced at me for only half a moment before she giggled and shook her head at them. “You sneaky fuckers were going to ambush us, weren’t you! How did you even get past all the rangers roaming the halls!?” Her giggle turned into a full, hearty laugh that I couldn’t help but join in on. “I’m not even mad, I’m actually kinda impressed.”

Both Rook and Solomon even smirked and let out their own, forced chuckles.

“Well now, you can hardly blame us for trying to get a leg up, can you?” Solomon’s light hearted tone cut through Hispano’s laugh like a freshly sharpened razor. The soft click of Hispano pulling out the stem on the grenade however, cut through Solomon’s smirk just as easily. “Though, I do uh… however, see how that was a poor move to make in hindsight.”

Hispano’s grip strained around the curved spoon around the apple shaped explosive, but with a dexterous claw, she used her other talon to slip the pin back in place.

All four of us froze as the sound of the door to the hallway opening up.

“Oh, what’s that smell?” The disgruntled voice of an elderly stallion called out as the sound of his hoofsteps came to an abrupt stop. “And a leak from one of the grease drums? There better be a good explanation for this...”

The stallion who’d entered wore flowing robes that were even more ornate than Red Velvet’s had been. A dozen old equestrian military medals jingled against each other as the pony tried his best to wipe the prismatic oil from the otherwise immaculately clean white robes. The burnished orange coat of the stallion held notes of grey and silver to it that matched the long, braided beard of the elderly earth pony. With a sigh, he pulled back his hood and revealed a head so bare of fur that it shined like a beacon under even the dim lighting of the other room.

Hispano, always quick to think, dropped to the floor out of sight, while Solomon and Rook both backed up and pressed themselves against the wall near the burned out door. Me? Well, I was still in the… unique position of being the best disguised of any of us right now, so I simply sat down at the window and watched him approach.

“You there, where is the quartermaster?” He gestured to me with a grunt before pointing back behind him. “And… oh, those robes. You are the scribe with Sentinel Velvet tonight? I’d like to speak with her as well.”

“I’m sorry, uh…” I offered and looked at the floor. My glance wandered over to the mare Hispano had dropped, and part of me wondered if she was just unconscious or if she was dead. “She stepped out a few minutes ago with the quartermaster, you just missed her… er, them.” I caught a glance of Hispano waving her talon at me from the floor. Focusing on her for a moment, she gestured for me to wrap things up quickly. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“Something you can do for you, elder.” The stallion grunted. “I can forgive your indiscretion this time, we’ve had a busy few days preparing for this operation. However, if you wish to stay with the rangers, you would do well to adhere to proper protocol, scribe initiate. I’m surprised Sentinel Velvet hasn’t drilled that into you yet.”

“Yes sir, Elder.” I forced out with my best imitation salute I could muster. Still, of course this was Elder Pilaf. Thank Celestia for the steel window obscuring most of me and for the fact that he obviously didn’t care to know who was who under his command!

“As for what you can do for me,” He sighed and once again gestured behind himself. “I’d like you to start by cleaning up that mess at the door.”

“I’m sorry, Elder, but I can’t do that.” I think my words came as a bit of a slap in the face to him, because he went stiff and scrunched up his muzzle at my quick reply. A sharp jolt along my foreleg drew my attention to Hispano, who was angrily glaring up at me. I get it, make him go away! “It’s just, you see, the motor of the door here was acting up again earlier, and I think it died when the quartermaster and the Sentinel left.”

“Ugh.” The elder brought his forehoof up to facehoof himself, but stopped just short when he realized it was still coated in the oil from the door. “I was assured that this problem had already been resolved.” With a dismissive wave, he turned and swiftly trotted up to the door. Uh… what was he doing? “No matter, the trick to these motors is that percussive maintenance normally solves the problem in the short term.”

Glancing over to Solomon and Rook, their fear filled gazes were locked right on the door they were cowering against. Don’t get me wrong, it felt good to see that they could be even more scared than earlier. But, if that door opened and he saw them…

“I’ll just give it a firm kick or two…” The elder groaned as he lined himself up with the door, spun on his forehooves, and jabbed out with his hind legs.

The door rang and shuddered from the healthy strikes to it. The motor above let out another painful whine and showered us with sparks once more. As we all looked on, we waited for it to grind to life and for the door to swing open. However, with another puff of smoke, the motor returned to silence once more.

“Hrumph.” The elder muttered as he stepped away from the door. “I suppose I’ll have to retask a few scribes to fix this issue by the end of shift.” Turning himself back towards the hallway door, he shot a glance back toward me. As he did, I turned my muzzle away and kept my eyes down on Hispano’s annoyed expression. “But know this. I will be having a discussion with the quartermaster about the state of this place. Faulty motor or no, she should not have left an initiate in charge.”

“Of course, Elder.” I replied with a firm nod. Good, now just turn and leave. I’m sure that Hispano’s little distraction will be more important than us any moment now…

The sound of the hallway door slamming open startled both the Elder and I, drawing my gaze up to it. Frantic hoofsteps in the halls beyond were joined by panicked shouts of ponys. A worried looking stallion in combat armor struggled to get through the doorway.

Wow, I couldn’t have guessed the timing on that any better if I’d tried!

“What is the meaning of this!” The Elder spat out.

“I’m sorry, Elder.” The combat armored stallion grunted as he pushed himself forward, dragging the bloody form of Red Velvet through the doorway with him. She looked just as bad off as Hispano had left her, but she was very much alive, and from the burning glare on her face, very much angry. “We found her like this in her room.”

“I was ambushed by two of the prisoners.” Red Velvet spat blood from her battered muzzle as she spoke, either shaking from her wounds, or strictly out of pure rage. “I don’t know how they got out, but they couldn’t have gotten...” Her gaze shifted up for only a moment, glancing over at me only in passing before her words died in her throat.

Well, that’s not good.

“So, you didn’t kill her?” I blinked and glanced down at Hispano. In an instant, her annoyed glare at me had been replaced by a scrunched beak and a want to be anywhere but here right now.

“Again, you and Buck are getting to me and it sucks.” She hissed and crossed her talons in a huff. “I knew it was a bad idea, but no, ‘killing is bad’! Give me a break! At least I’m trying to figure out how to be better.”

“That’s one of them!” Red Velvet roared as she twisted herself in the soldierpony’s grasp. With a growl she managed to get her muzzle around his service pistol, but struggled to slip it from it’s holster.

“Well, if you want to fix that, now’s your chance!” I called out as I wrapped my forehoof around her talon and tried to pull her up. Instead, my tug stripped the grenade from her claw while her other talon remained holding the stem-like pin. The sharp ‘ping’ of the apple’s metal spoon flipping off made even Red Velvet pause for a moment as I realized what I’d done.

With a twist of my leg, I hurled the small explosive through the rectangular slot. Both the Elder and Velvet went wide eyed as the apple bounced across the floor toward them. They both scrambled to get to the hallway for cover. However, the armored stallion standing in the doorway seemed completely frozen in fear as the small metal orb gave one final bounce.

A sharp yank from Hispano pulled me down onto the floor just in time.

The blast sent a plume of pummeled concrete and smoke through the armored hole, and my hearing was instantly replaced with an echoing ring. Honestly, it took me a few moments of laying on the floor with Hispano for the gravity of what had just happened to hit me.

I think I’d just murdered the Elder of the Seaddle Steel Rangers…

Well, is it really murder when they were going to kill us first? No, they had every chance to talk with us and chose this. Will the Bow-Wing rangers see it that way? Fuck, hopefully I didn’t just blow up any chance of keeping our deal to fix the Arcturus.

A good tap on the shoulder from Hispano drew my attention to where she was pointing. My eyes followed to see both Rook and Solomon making their way around the two of us towards the sealed boxes at the far end of our room. With another wave of her talon, Hispano pointed to herself, then to the boxes. With a prod against my chest, she pointed at the box next to us filled with more of the small silver apples, then up to the slot above.

I nodded, and both of us helped each other up off the floor.

As she got back on all fours, Hispano quickly got Suiza strapped to herself again. Contented, she dragged the box of grenades over to me, leaving me to defend us as she moved to race Solomon and Rook to find our gear first. The two of them had a bit of a head start, and were eagerly stripping the sealed boxes from the shelves and tearing through them. Though, with Rook’s horn still out of commission from the anti-magic ring, and Solomon hesitant to touch anything at all that was remotely dirty, something told me that Hispano would be winning that race.

Movement caught my attention from the corner of my good eye, and I peered through the still clearing smoke of the blast. Rangers wearing the ‘hoof it’ jumpsuits were just arriving in the hallway beyond. They quickly dragged the mangled and bloodied form of the soldier from the doorway, and peered in to find the pulped body of the elder half-splattered against the blast-pitted doorway itself.

A red foreleg reached out and shoved the two gawking rangers out of the way. Wobbly and somehow sporting an even more furious glare than before, Red Velvet stumbled forward. She braced herself against the doorway as her eyes once again found mine, and she adjusted the combat pistol in her muzzle.

I barely ducked in time before a few sparking shots slammed into the wall behind me. Shit! Okay, so maybe she’s just a little angry at us. Thankfully, I’ve got the tools I need to remedy this right in front of me!

Grabbing another of the apple grenades from the box, I bit down on it’s stem and yanked.

Without being able to fully stand up without getting shot, I did my best to toss the apple through the rectangular opening. I’m sure it didn’t go as far as the first throw, but it would at least keep more ponies from taking pot-shots at us for the moment!

The sharp blast of the grenade sent another cloud of concrete dust billowing through the rectangular slot. Reaching out, I grabbed yet another grenade. With it held tightly in hoof, I lifted my head up to the armored slot to peer out.

Sparks flew from the corner of the cage as several poorly aimed shots punched through the smoke. My head was jarred sideways and a medical warning came up in my vision as my left ear was clipped by a round. Pulling myself back, I instinctively reached up and felt at my ear. Thankfully the talisman in my head was working, because I couldn’t feel the pain from it at all.

Still, the sight of blood coating the grenade in my forehoof sent a spike of anger through me. I put the pin in my muzzle and pulled, as well as loosened my hoof just enough to let the metal spoon fly off. Holding it for a single second, I held my breath and then put as much force into throwing it through the slot as I could.

A few more inaccurate shots sparked off the wall and cage as the grenade flew into the next room, and I ducked back under the safety of the wall.

As the third blast washed over me, I blinked as I noticed a box of cloth tanker’s helmets next to where the grenades had been stored. They were of the same design as the one’s Boiler and Delilah had used back on the convoy, and with an idea in my head, I reached out and slid the box over.

It was a bit of a pain to get on with a single hoof, but I’d managed to get one wrapped around my skull securely enough that I could button it up. Other than the ringing the three grenades had left in my ears, the moment the muzzle strap snapped on, the world was dipped into a familiar silence. Thank Celestia, these things still work!

With the serene artificial quiet of the helmet’s magic helping me to focus, I took a moment to peek up at the door to the hallway.

While it was still tough to see through the fairly thick smoke, there wasn’t anypony eager to peek out and shoot back at us for the moment. In fact, one of the jumpsuit ponies must have chosen a poor moment to try to get past the door, because their body now lay splayed on the floor over the first soldier’s in the hall. Still, as nice as it was to have caught a break, this wouldn’t last forever.

Taking another helmet in my grasp, I reached up and threw it at Hispano. Unfortunately, my aim left a lot to be desired, and I ended up slapping Rook right across the muzzle with it. He shot me an angry glare before looking down at the helmet curiously. As I grabbed another helmet to attempt to get to Hispano, Rook surprisingly picked up the one at his hooves and put it on.

This time, my aim was spot on, and I slapped Hispano right across her beak with the tanker’s helmet.

“I hope you know…” His voice was mostly drowned out by the ringing in my head, but at least I could hear him at all. “As fun as this has been, as soon as I find our gear and fix my horn, Master Solomon and I will be leaving you two to your mess here.”

“Yeah…” I grunted as I wrapped my fetlock around another apple grenade and smiled widely at Rook’s unamused expression. “You even think about touching your horn, and we’re all going to find out how fun tonight can get.”

“Typical.” Hispano snorted as she got her helmet fitted snugly over her plumage. “The first thing I hear is Night talking about touching somepony’s horn and having some fun.” With a smirk, she tore open yet another box and dumped out it’s contents beside the dozen others she’d opened so far. “How about you boys save it for the bedroom and play nice for now so the Steel Rangers don’t barge in here and, I don’t know, kill us all?”

To punctuate her words, a few sparking shots tore through the hole in the cage from the hallway again. I only had a moment to glance out, but spotted the bulky form of a pony in power armor stepping up to the doorway. Well, that’s not good!

“Then I'd appreciate it if we could move this along, Hispano!” I snapped back to them as the two miniguns strapped to the power armor spun up.

I ducked back down and shut my eyes as the pair of firearms unleashed twin sprays of fire against the armored cage. Holes bloomed in the armored plates as the blistering rate of fire literally bludgeoned it’s way through.

“Hey, I'm not the one with the easy job!” Hispano squawked back as she dug into the pile of junk she’d poured onto the floor.

“Easy!?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! Pulling the pin to the next apple grenade with my teeth, I took a moment to wait for a pause in the sweeping minigun fire to again toss the grenade out. “You call holding off an entire base of pissed off Steel Rangers easy!?”

“It's not hard to throw grenades, Night!” She fired back through a growl.

“It really isn’t.” Rook retorted as he pulled another box from the shelf.

“Hey, you know what?” Hispano snapped as she pulled what looked like a rusty old sword from her pile. With a jab at Rook, she firmly got his attention. “Thanks for volunteering to help defend us! Now, keep your muzzle shut and start tossing grenades, or...” She turned the old blade towards Solomon, who was oh so blissfully unaware while still carefully sorting through his own pile of junk he’d made.

“Okay, okay.” Rook held a hoof up to her. With a sideways glance, he stepped away from the boxes and over toward me. “I relent that you may have a point, and I will comply. However, have you given any thought as to how we are to escape this predicament?” He smirked as he kept his head down, slowly reaching his brass cyberhoof into the box of grenades. “This obviously wasn’t your original plan, however, if you haven’t noticed, there seems to be only one way out of this room.”

As much as I hated to admit it, he raised a fair point. Right now, the only path to freedom ran right through an entire army of Steel Rangers who were probably only slightly angry that we’d killed their Elder. Yeah, this… this wasn’t exactly a great situation we’d found ourselves in.

“It’s easy!” Hispano fired back with more confidence in her voice than could have been warranted given the circumstances. “We’re locked inside the one room with all the ammo and explosives. Use them for fuck’s sake!”

Taking a moment to pull herself away from the boxes of things, she hopped over and pulled another few wooden boxes out from under the workbenches beside us and dumped them onto the floor. More grenades, mines, rockets, and even a few glowing balefire eggs scattered at our hooves.

“If we die in here, I’ll tell you exactly why!” She snapped at us as she snatched one of the large anti-personnel mines in her talons and flipped a switch on it. “You. Didn’t. Throw. Enough. Grenades!” With a frisbee-like toss, she flung the flat, pancake-like mine out of the armored slot before spinning around and heading back to the boxes. “You should be throwing grenades as I say this!”

Begrudgingly, Rook took the grenade in his hoof and brought it to his muzzle. He looked at it hesitantly, then over at me. I could see the same urge I’d felt course through his mind for a single moment. It would be so easy to pull the pin and kill us right here and now. But his gaze shifted, not actually to anything else, but in the vague direction of Solomon. As it did, he pulled the pin and tossed the grenade through the slot.

Before his grenade went off, another shower of bullets sprayed against the armored wall. More holes opened up in the quickly wearing plates above us, and some of the links they were anchored to shredded away. If this kept up, before long they’d open a slot big enough to get their own grenades through.

Scooping another grenade pin into my muzzle, I pulled it and tossed the grenade with an arc through the opening they’d made.

“Fucking finally!” Hispano gasped, pulling both Rook and my attention over to her.

From out of the box in her claws, she pulled out my subgun and flight rig. Along with it, she pulled out the holster for Baby, getting it secured to herself before drawing the robust pistol itself out of the box. With a wide smile across her bloody beak, she pointed it at the still unaware Solomon.

Rook moved faster than I could react. In a single moment, he’d gotten to his hooves and had slammed into the back of Solomon. The two of them went down in a heap to the floor, while Hispano frowned and looked at Baby. With a quick ejection of the mag, she sighed as she found it empty.

“What are you doing!?” Rook snapped at her as he scrambled to get up off of Solomon. “We had a deal!”

As soon as he’d gotten to his hooves, he raised his brass leg up like a club. He stopped dead in his tracks however as Hispano handily swiped up the rusty sword from before and pointed it at him. Again, I could almost see the thoughts running through Rook’s mind. With his experience and expertise from guarding Solomon, he could most likely disarm and kill Hispano. But his gaze shifted ever so slightly back toward me, and again his rational mind surely told him there could be no protecting Solomon if he followed through.

Solomon, now furiously yelling even though we couldn’t hear him, got up to his hooves and turned toward Hispano with an empty box angrily gripped in his hoof. His shouting lasted only long enough until the point of the sword shifted toward him.

“You can hardly blame me for trying, right?” Hispano cooed as she jabbed the sword at him, causing Rook to again take up a stance between them. “Now calm him down and get back to work.” With a flip of her other talon, she smoothly put Baby back into her holster. As she did, she paused for a moment and looked over at me with a puzzled expression. “Wait, why is it quiet?”

Blinking, I realized that after the last grenade, the shooting back had stopped.

Surely they hadn’t given up. Grabbing another grenade, I hovered it close to my muzzle. Though, maybe they’d had enough explosions for one night and at least wanted to talk? Leaning myself forward and stretching my neck up, I moved to peek through the slot. Again, I simply blinked as I saw the power armored ranger with the miniguns step aside for another power armored ranger to take his place.

Only this one had a pair of rocket launchers strapped to his armor.

Gasping, I bit down on the grenade and scrambled over towards the others. I’d made it a few hobbling steps toward Solomon before Rook tried to get in my way. Unfortunately for him, it was a poor move at the time.

The air behind me felt like it ignited, burning me through my augment for a split second as it fuzzed. My wings snapped forward, and all of me was propelled right into Rook, who was in turn thrown back onto Solomon. A dozen warnings popped up in my vision as bits of shrapnel and rock lanced at all three of us as we skid and rolled across the concrete floors.

Doing my best to shake off the blast, and get back to fighting, I spit the grenade into my hoof. As I picked myself up, I looked back through the clearing cloud of dust and smoke. The shredded and twisted remains of the metal door to the armory lay scattered across the floor. A floor that I could feel heavy rhythmic stomps resonate through. Sure enough, the bulky silver form of the power armored ranger with the miniguns pushed through the wafting smoke.

Looking at the grenade in my hoof, I knew that it wasn’t going to be enough to get through the armor. A glow beside me however caught my eye, and I traded my grenade for the balefire egg that had ended up rolling beside me. Yeah, that’ll probably do the trick...

A flash of magic filled the air in front of me, and a familiar glowing pony stood with a smile. Though bleeding glowing blood from where the antimagic ring had previously been secured to his horn, Beam was otherwise untouched and glowing brighter than the egg in my hoof. With a gasp, he used his magic to strip the glowing egg from my hoof, and at the same time, envelop me in his magic.

With a dizzyingly disorienting pop that left me momentarily blind, I found myself weightless…

Until I smacked down against the floor again.

Rubbing at my eyes to try to clear my vision, I was startled as the whole floor shook under me. Hispano let out a surprised squawk, and Rook let out a confused grunt as well. What? What did Beam just do to us?

“What the fuck just happened!?” Hispano spat out before my own words could find their way from my mind to my muzzle.

There was a soft tug at my head that made me jump. Before I could protest, I felt the cloth helmet get peeled off of me, and the dull ringing in my ears was joined with the sound of voices and hoofsteps all around. As my eyes began to clear, I could somewhat make out the rounded shape of the tunnel of the underground, as well as the glowing form of Beam levitating the tanker helmets off of Hispano and Rook.

“There you go, friends!” He laughed as he helped a very confused looking Solomon up to his hooves. “I and the others managed to get out thanks to your excellent distraction, but I couldn’t just leave you there without returning the favor! And from my work in the metro tunnels before the war, I had a pretty good idea of where to find you!”

“What?” The words tumbled out of my muzzle as I got to my hooves. As soon as I had, Solomon’s frantic retreat bowled me over as he scrambled to get as far from Beam as he could. “Hey!” I whimpered as I flopped to the floor again.

“It… it touched me!” He hissed and favored the hoof Beam had held. “Rook! I demand you do something about this!”

“I would gladly, sir, however…” With a grumble, Rook pointed to the ring still firmly secured around his horn. “I am still quite inconvenienced.”

“Oh! Let me help you with that!” Beam smiled as his bleeding horn glowed brighter than his bones. With a flash, a rusty metal toolbox appeared at his hooves, and he got to work digging through it. “Let’s see, I just used you… you couldn’t have gotten far...”

“Hey, Night.” Hispano called out as she quickly made her way to my side. Without waiting, she tossed my flight harness over to me. “Get this on and let’s get out of here.”

“Aha! Here it is!” Beam gasped and pulled out a tarnished and pitted red handled screwdriver. “Now just hold still, this might hurt for the first few moments…”

While Beam got to work on Rook’s horn, I likewise got to my hooves again and started strapping my harness back on. While I could see that the clear magazine for my subgun was empty for the moment, at least I could be thankful the Steel Rangers hadn’t stored them separately. And hey! It lasted through the fight without getting destroyed, which was definitely a win given my track record with guns so far.

“Holy shit!” Hispano giggled as she felt around in her reclaimed saddlebags. With a smile so wide it threatened to tear her head right off her neck, she drew out a single red tipped twenty millimeter round in her talon. “They missed one!”

Blinking at it, I turned my eyes up to her as she turned hers onto mine. A single shared thought flashed between us, and before I knew it, I was smiling as wide as her. Slowly, we both turned our eyes on the quickly shrinking and battered form of Solomon.

With a flip of the round in her talon, she used her bruised body to swing Suiza around on her sling. Lifting my hoof up, I caught the end of the barrel, holding it steady as she made short work of opening Suiza’s bolt and cramming the round home inside.

“Oh no no no!” Beam gasped out as he looked back to see what we were doing.

With another flash of magic that left me blind, again I found myself also falling back down onto the hard tunnel floor.

“What the fuck!” Hispano hissed again as she tugged Suiza right out of my grip.

“No killing!” Beam stated sharply. “You be nice to them. We’ve all been through enough today, don’t you think?”

The old me from above the clouds would have understood and accepted that. The Night before Cantercross might have been able to justify sparing them for a day. But as good a pony as Beam was trying to be right now, he didn’t know what we’d been through to get here.

“Beam, those two? They killed our entire convoy.” I spat out and locked my eyes on him as soon as I could once again vaguely make out his glowing form. “They tried to kill us earlier today, and as soon as they have the chance, they’ll do it again.”

“That’s not my problem.” He sighed and reached up, placing a steady, but squishy hoof on me. “I know you must have your reasons, but I just saved all of you. I can even take you anywhere in the city you want, even away from them if that’s what you want! All I’m asking in return for all of that, is no more killing today.”

Maybe it was because his calm tone reminded me of Buck, or maybe it was because there was still some part of the old naïve me still somewhere deep under the terrible memories and scars I’d collected. But as much as I wanted to tell Hispano to shoot Solomon right now, I hesitated. Solomon deserved to die, but… for all my quick replies and blunt answers, I couldn’t find a single one now.

“It doesn’t matter.” Hispano grumbled as she flopped onto her back and let Suiza fall across her chest. “We missed our shot.”

Looking past her down the tunnel, only a rusty toolbox, red handled screwdriver, and anti-magic ring sat on the floor.

“They’re gone, Night.”

The creaks of old, soggy wood under my hooves met me, as well as the thick scent of saltwater overwhelming my nose. I squinted and tried to see past the blindness that Beam’s teleportation had left me with, finding that with a flicker, my augmented eye reset and showed me where we’d landed.

Several snow dogs had paused working on the pile of supplies they’d been carrying up the long gangplank for the Inuvik. Up close, and in the makeshift lighting along the mooring lines, the ship seemed a lot worse for wear than it had from the air. Thousands of tiny patched bullet holes sat scattered along it’s hull, as well as a few larger gaps that had been filled and painted over.

However, even at this time of night, the light from the cabin windows still periodically showed movement past it. There had been so much going on with Hispano and I tonight that I almost dismissed it. But, I paused in thought about how up onboard the Arcturus, even when we’d had Cora, King and Delta, there had been a time at night where everything was calm and quiet. But between the damage to the Inuvik, and how well the crew had patched it, I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d had it too easy before.

That’s not to say I think we deserved to lose Delta, just that maybe… maybe I shouldn’t take what we do have for granted.

“Is this where you two wanted to go?” Beam Bright smiled and looked questioningly at the snow dogs as they got back to work. “Sort of an odd request if you ask me.”

“We have friends here.” I nodded to him and sat down. The old and wet wood under my flank sagged even from my admittedly light weight, and I couldn’t help but feel a spike of fear that the incident on Destruction bay’s docks was about to repeat itself. However, the board held, and Beam happily took my hoof with his own. “Thank you for helping us out of there, Beam.”

“Thank you for not treating me like a monster in that cage.” He offered, letting his grip slacken for a moment. “It’s not often that I meet others who will even speak to me, let alone…”

“Yeah yeah,” Hispano grumbled, grabbing me around the barrel and forcefully tearing me away from Beam. “We don’t see all ghouls as bad, but you are still poison to sit next to.”

I gave Hispano a sideways glare. Sure he’s radioactive, but I didn’t think it warranted…

Hispano flicked her talon against my muzzle sharply, making me flinch.

“Besides, I am exhausted. Let’s go find Buck and collapse on him.” She cooed and turned her gaze back at Beam. She forced up a smile across her bruised face and gave him a dismissive wave. “Thanks again, we’ll look you up if we’re ever in town again or whatever.”

“Oh, okay!” Beam’s expression brightened at that, and he gave us an excited wave of his glowing hoof. “Well, until next time! Safe travels!”

With a green flash of magic, he was gone.

“Alright.” Hispano sighed and made sure Suiza was well slung onto her before she turned to me. “Let’s just go find Buck and hit the sack.” With a light wave, she motioned for me to follow her to the gangplank.

“You’ll get no arguments from me.” I nodded and followed. I just couldn’t help but think about how good it would feel to do what Hispano said and simply collapse into his loving warmth...

Then a painful spike of reality shot through my mind, and through my face.

“On second thought,” I winced as I did my best to keep up at my normal, hobbling pace. Every other step it felt like the medical warnings in my augmented vision got more and more prominent. “maybe we should hit the infirmary first. I mean, Buck’s just going to want us to go there anyway once he sees us.”

Hispano stopped walking and simply hung her head.

“Yeah, probably. I hate it when you’re right.” With a rough glance over at her shoulder, I could almost see her weighing the option to just toss me off the docks right now. But the hint of a smile tugged at her beak. “You know, Dum Dum? Let him carry us.”

“Again, no arguments from me!”

Making our way up the mostly flat gangplank, we quickly made our way through the entry hatch, but paused as a wave of warm air washed over us. Of course, I couldn’t feel the warmth, but it at least appeased my muscles enough that they didn’t protest as much as before.

Passing from hallway to hallway in the ship, I followed Hispano around and past the dogs and ponies who were still actively doing their jobs. Almost everyone we passed by gave us just enough of a glance to look, but didn’t linger on us. It was weird, almost as if we were an oddity they’d never seen before, but wasn’t sure if it was safe to keep looking.

But… that’s because we were exactly that.

Each eye that fell on us as we made our way through the ship saw Hispano and I as unpredictable strangers. Because even though we’d been here before, and even though we loved Buck, this wasn’t our home. It was theirs.

And part of me? Some irrational slice of my mind was angry at that.

We’d fought so hard to get down here, and helped out so many along the way. We’d killed monsters the size of buildings, fought alongside the best tankers Equestria had once offered. We’d saved entire towns, helped others find their way, took down entire oppressive and backwards governments, while even helping a few better ones to rise.

Bombay?

We’d sacrificed so much, and yet, we are the ones who can’t be trusted?

“Bombay?”

A voice frantically calling down the hallway behind Hispano and I kicked me from my thoughts. We both stopped, turning to see a hulking, chocolate brown snow dog with a white spot on her face.

“Rosey?” Her name forced itself from my muzzle, bringing a large smile to hers.

“Holy Celestia, it is you!” She laughed as she dropped the box she’d been carrying in order to barrel down the hallway towards us. The pair of ponies she pushed past barely had time to flatten themselves to the wall before she stomped on by. “Come here ya’ little squirt!” She laughed and held out her paws as she got to me.

In one swipe, I was up off the floor, and my vision was once again flooded with medical warnings. Not that I needed them however, I could basically feel my lungs and ribs implode from the aggressive hug all on my own!

“Goddesses, it’s been...!” She paused either as she realized I was turning blue from oxygen starvation, or more likely, from the fact that she’d gotten a good look at my augment. “Oh, that’s some fancy new tech you’ve got there! It looks almost like Buck’s eye does.” Lifting her other massive paw up, she tapped at my eye lenses with her blunted claw. “I bet you this thing could help make you a beast in the Wreck Room! Maybe if you’re up for it, we could get a quick rematch going, you know? Hell, I’d even split the winnings with you if I still won!”

“Hi.” Hispano squawked sharply to get Rosey’s attention. “I don’t know if you’re blind, or just stupid, but I think he’s had enough fighting for one night. We both have.”

It was about when I started to see darkness crawl into my vision from suffocation that she looked over Hispano’s blood and bruised covered body, and then looked over at mine. With a firm nod, she mercifully released me and set me back down onto the floor. I wheezed heavily as I did my best not to gulp down breaths of air.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. We can talk about a rematch later!” She rubbed her massive paw along the back of her neck while using her other paw to point down the hall. “The least I can do is walk you two to the infirmary. We’ll get you both patched up in no time!”

Thinking about matches between others, what I’d pay to see is who gave the strongest hugs between Rosey, Banana Bonanza, and Jean. Not hugging me, of course! But that is a matchup for the ages….

Author's Note

As always, a huge thanks to TheFurryRailFan for his continued and dedicated work in going over each of these chapters. It means the world to me that you've continued to help for so long, and I will forever be in your debt for it.

And of course, many thanks to Kkat for creating FoE in the first place, as well as allowing others to run around in this amazing shared universe with their own stories.